1. Tableau / Table / Atlas
• Explosion de la présentabilité
• Explosion de l’historicité : découpages spaciaux
de la nature insuffisants (généalogie,
minéralogie)
• La notion de discontinuité menace de faire
exploser le tableau
=> Michel Foucault « l’archéologie du savoir »,
1969, sur la discontinuité, élément fondamental
de l’analyse historique. Ce n’est plus un obstacle à
une pratique mais un concept opératoire.

2. Tableau périodique des éléments
Dmitri Mendeleïev, 1869

3. Jean-Martin Charcot /Paul Richer, assistant de Charcot

4. The range of the positions of the hysteric. Given best in Paul Richer, Études
cliniques sur le grande hystérie ou hystéro-épilepsie
(Paris: Delahaye & Lecrosnier, 1881), plate 5.
(Bethesda, Md.: National Library of Medicine.)

5. Désastres
« La dislocation du monde, voilà le
sujet de l’art »
Bertold Brecht, 1940

6. Plaque 3 : Lo mismo. Combat entre les soldats français et civils espagnols.
Les Désastres de la guerre

7. Los Caprichos (Les Caprices) est une série de 80 gravures du peintre espagnol
Francisco de Goya, consistant en une satire de la société espagnole de la fin du
XVIIIe siècle, surtout de la noblesse et du clergé.

8. Rome today/1929: Catholic
Church turnsfromsecular to
spiritual power
The Church in
comparisonwith the State
during the official celebration
of the LateranPacts (February
1929): abdication of secular
power in return for
conservation of
symbolicauthority.

10. Gerhard Richter'sAtlasis a collection of photographs, newspapercuttings and sketches that the artist
has been assemblingsince the mid 1960s. A few yearslater, Richter started to arrange the materials
on loosesheets of paper.
"In the beginning I tried to accommodateeverythingtherethatwassomewherebetween art and
garbage and thatsomehowseemed important to me and a pity to throw away."1
Atpresent, Atlasconsists of 802 sheets. Spanning a period of almost four decades, the
individualsheetsreflectdifferent phases of Richter's life and work:
Although Gerhard Richter hadalreadybeguncollectingphotographs and
presscuttings, hestartedworking on Atlas in the early 1970s by arranginghisown and
otherfamilyphotographs on paper.
Subsequent to thesephotographs, heincludedpicturestakenfromnewspapers and magazines, some
of whichheused as source images for his 1960s photo paintings [e.g. Sheets: 5–15]. For the group of
works48 Portraits for example, sketches of how to hang the paintingscanbefound in addition to
source images and installation views of the paintingsat the Venice Biennale in 1972. [Sheets: 30–41]

11. Atlasoffers insights intoRichter'sartistic practice and hisway of creatingimagery. The
Atlassheetsallow one to track how first experimentswithHolocaustphotographseventuallyled to
Black, Red, Gold, executed in colour-coated glass; the piecewascommissioned by the Deutsche
Bundestag (GermanGovernment) [Sheets: 635–655].
However, photographstaken by the artisthimself are the main focus of Atlas. Extensive series of
landscapes, stilllifes and familyphotographsweremeticulouslyarranged on the sheets. Some of
thesephotographswerelaterused as source images for paintings or wereincluded in hisartist's books,
as canbeseen in Wald. The Atlas sheets 697–736eveninclude the completelayout of the artist's
book WarCutfrom 2004.
Gerhard Richter's life and art interrelate in Atlas in a multilayeredway: banal subjectssuch as a toilet
roll [Sheet: 14] are juxtaposedwithhorrifyingHolocaust images [Sheets: 16–20]; serial
landscapepictures are lined up withintimatefamilyphotographs; coloursamplesattached to source
images canbefound as well as photographsshowingmuseum installations. On the basis of
itscomplexity and diversity, the importance of Atlasexceeds simple documentation, and Atlas
iswidelyconsidered as an independentartwork.
Notes prepared by editorial team
1Interview with Dieter Schwarz, 1999 in: Gerhard Richter: Text. Writings, Interviews and Letters
1961–2007, Thames & Hudson, London, 2009, p. 332

12. Gerhard Richter: Que peut l’Art face à l’Histoire?
Übersicht
Vue d'ensemble
1998 82.8 cm x 68.2 cm Tirages d'Art CR: 93
Impression offset sur ​​papier chiffon épais
http://www.gerhard-
richter.com/art/editions/uumlbersicht-
12785/?&p=1&sp=32&tab-
artwork=notes

18. Fischli et Weiss, Visible World, installation 1987-2001

19. Fischli/Weiss Image from Visible World 1987 - 2001

24. Hans-PeterFeldmann, Shadow Play (Paris), 2011
Bois, moteurs électriques, lampes, métal, céramique, plastique, papier, tissu, verre, fer blanc
Une salle de 12 x 8 m. Hauteur sous plafond : 3 m
Une table de 80 cm de hauteur, plateau de 8 m x 1 m (ou en plusieurs morceaux)

25. Hans Peter Feldman, « Beds »

28. Hans-PeterFeldmann – profil withoutwords (2000)

29. Gina Pane, Action Escalade non-anesthésiée, avril 1971
Constat de l'action réalisée dans l'atelier de l'artiste, Paris
Un panneau de photographies et un bâti métallique retracent l'action de l'artiste, pieds et mains
nus, gravissant la structure métallique dont les échelons sont munis de tranchants/ 323 x 320 x
23 cm